


forever with you

by floatingonthelehigh



Category: Car Boys, McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: Car Boys - Freeform, Existentialism, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-07 12:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11059239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingonthelehigh/pseuds/floatingonthelehigh
Summary: It hits him, for real this time, and he shakes his head incredulously, eyes still closed tight. “Forever. Literally forever, Griffin. Literally forever.” He opens his eyes only to find the handle on the side of his seat and lean himself back further. “Do you realize how long forever is, Griff?”(an extension of the car boys post-credits scene, if instead of a fade to white on them listening to Elton John, they actually listened to that song a million times, became gods, escaped the time ring and fell in love along the way.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for clicking on my fic! here's a few quick things:
> 
> this is an au, where nick had been controlling beamng.drive with a tablet that can manipulate this virtual reality that they're now stuck in. I won't go into too much detail, but the point is this is an au. Nick and Griffin are characters in this story, and I don't ship them in real life. They're just two boys in an au whom I'm gonna make kiss.
> 
> also, leave a kudos if you like this/if you'd like to! I'll be posting a part per day (hopefully), and finish this quick little fic soon.
> 
> thanks! enjoy :)

It is now their seventy-fifth time in a row listening to Elton John’s _Candle in the Wind_. Griffin is still leaned back in his seat, loudly singing along in his awful, awful Elton John impression. It made Nick smile the first twenty-six times Griffin had performed for him, but now Nick can’t force himself to keep smiling. In fact he can’t force himself to do anything but grip the steering wheel with white knuckles and stare out the windshield in front of him.

After those last few electric guitar chords, Griffin making accompanying noises until the very last note, Nick forces his eyes away from staring into blank space and and clicks the eject button on the cassette player.

Griffin opens his eyes at that and turns his head quickly towards Nick.

“Hey, what the fuck dude? I was ready for another round.”

Nick only glances back at him for a second before looking back out into the gray, setting his jaw. “I don’t want to hear that song ever again. I feel like I have never not been listening to that song ever in my life.”

“Aw come on Nick, it’s only been—” he glances down at his watch, before dropping his head back against his seat in defeat. “Oh, right. Time ring.”

“Which means I have been listening to that song literally forever. Because, you know.”

“Time ring.” Griffin finishes for him.

Nick takes a deep breath, pries his sore hands from the steering wheel, and goes to lean his seat back as well. He had been waiting, thinking maybe something would appear out in the gray abyss, some way to steer themselves out of this. But he feels drained already, the hope he had seventy-five plays of _Candle in the Wind_ ago now long gone. So Nick settles into his seat, and rubs his eyes hard until he sees stars.

“Nick, I know this sucks.” Griffin starts. Nick uncovers his eyes and blinks the stars away, turning his gaze to Griffin. He's staring up at the roof of the car, chewing his lip as he speaks. “But. We did it. Not in the best way, or any sort of way that would let us continue living normal, mortal lives, but...I guess we should’ve expected that when we first came here. When we first started to mess with things, mess with the Bustos…” Griffin scrunches up his face then, and turns his head towards Nick. In a joking, high-pitched voice he adds “probably shouldn’ta done that, huh?” With that he turns away again, and Nick watches Griffin blink a few times in the silence, then swallow heavy. “At least you got to say goodbye.”

Nick closes his eyes and feels that stinging shame, back again. He’s never going to forgive himself for that. He doesn’t expect Griffin to, either. But he tries, anyway.

“I’m sorry.” He pauses, and Griffin only sighs. So Nick continues. “Even when I was saying goodbye, I didn’t think anything like _this_ would happen. I didn’t know about the vortex...I just knew the blob was dangerous and that we had to stop it. I thought we might _die_ . I had no idea we would be trapped here. Forever.” It hits him, for real this time, and he shakes his head incredulously, eyes still closed tight. “Forever. Literally forever, Griffin. _Literally forever_.” He opens his eyes only to find the handle on the side of his seat and lean himself back further. “Do you realize how long forever is, Griff?”

They’re parallel now, both practically lying horizontal in their seats. Griffin takes his eyes off the ceiling and they lock eyes. Behind his glasses, Griffin’s eyes are watering.

“It’s the longest time.” He says, the tips of his lips automatically tipping up, almost like he can’t help it.

“It’s the absence of time.” Nick replies, a giggle suddenly forcing its way out through his lips. He clamps a hand over his mouth instinctively, but another one follows—panicked laughter that he can’t help.

He is going to be surrounded by gray emptiness, trapped in a virtual waterproof 1996 Ibishu Pessima Lx, pursued by the Devil in the form of a black blob for the rest of forever. It’s ridiculous. And hilarious, apparently, because now he can’t stop laughing.

Griffin is looking at him, eyebrows raised as Nick keeps laughing. Nick lets the tears well up in the corners of his eyes. Griffin tries to hold a straight face for a few more seconds before he bursts into laughter too, and they’re both laughing and tumbling through nothingness forever and ever and ever and ever.

Nick’s stomach hurts and he wipes his hands under his eyes as he sits up and pushes the tape back in.

“Encore” he declares, and mimes himself playing a little piano as the first few chords begin to play. He knows every note and beat by heart already, as does Griffin, and they whip their heads towards one another and serenade each other in unison the moment Elton begins to sing. They burst into laughter again at that, Nick hiccuping from his laugh catching him off guard, which just makes them both laugh harder. Griffin is red in the face, doubled over. Nick’s cheeks are warm and he closes his eyes as he practically screams the chorus, pouring his soul into an invisible microphone.

And so forever begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My draft of this fic is in 6 parts, so I'll be trying to finish up and post a part per day! but for now, I hope you enjoyed what I have so far! lemme know what you think if you want! :)


	2. Chapter 2

It has been forever.

It really has been forever, time ring and all, but it’s also felt that long. If he really had to guess, Nick imagines it’s been weeks by now.

They’re never hungry or thirsty or even very sleepy — their bodies frozen in the moment they first arrived. But they  _ can _ sleep, and it becomes one of their favorite pastimes when conversation fades or they’re sick of remembering their situation. When Nick does sleep, he only rests for what feels like a few hours, never feeling refreshed or renewed after. He just feels the same.

(What feels like) Weeks into forever, they’ve retired  _ Candle in the Wind _ for a while. Even Griffin couldn’t take it any longer, and Nick really did think he was going to spend eternity listening to that abysmal impression. But instead, Griffin hums the tune under his breath instinctively, and Nick has to beg him to stop before that fucking song is stuck in his head again.

Instead of jamming out while they tumble blindly through space, they’ve been talking. A lot. Before all of this they knew plenty about each other — Griffin loved the theatre (Nick now knows that Griffin starred in Oklahoma in high school), he played guitar and piano (Griffin says sometimes his fingers ache to play again, too bad there’s no instruments just floating around the void), and Nick has also learned that Griffin is in fact the funniest person to have existed (both in the real world and the digital world of beamng.drive). Even when eternally damned to float endlessly in the void Griffin can make Nick laugh, very easily and very often.

“And I told him uhhhh  _ no _ thanks.” Griffin says, in the middle of a long story about the time he was offered weed on a train in Chicago. He’s on his knees on his seat, acting out every motion, and Nick watches enthralled as he switches posture, now embodying the scruffy old man, lifting an invisible bag of marijuana. “And he goes ‘weeeeell boy, don’t be that way. There’s no need to be ruuuude, boy.” Griffin breaks character to look back at Nick, who is beaming back at him. Griffin smiles at the fact Nick is still entranced (how could he not be?) and continues. “And I’m just standing there...and then he  _ thrusts  _ the bag towards me and I literally  _ jumped back- _ ” and he tries to do just that —  and smacks his head against the window behind him. He’s instantly cracking up, lifting a hand to rub his the back of his head, and Nick rushes forward at the same time, still laughing but instinctively reaching out for him.

“You okay?” Nick asks between laughs, his fingers settling against the back of Griffin’s head and combed through his hair, and he just sort of...leaves his hand there, his entire body leaned about a foot too far into Griffin’s personal space.

“Yeah bud, I’m okay.” Griffin assures him, and then allows there to be a silent second where Nick’s hand is still cradling his head and...Nick pulls back. 

Nick doesn’t fully paying attention the rest of the story.

 

When Griffin isn’t joking around with him — in the time where they’re both sort of lucid and quiet, staring out into nothing and content to just speak about anything and everything with each other — Griffin is...well. Griffin is almost someone else.

They spoke about growing up, how different it was that Nick is the oldest of his pack of brothers and Griffin the youngest. They compared home lives, high school experiences, college tales. They talked about Griffin’s mom, for a little while. How hard that was for him. Griffin’s voice went all soft, raspy...barely audible, for a moment. Nick felt the car get very small right then, the air heavy. This side of him was new territory for Nick. But Griffin, of course, changed the subject and made a goof about where the kids who used to bully Nick are now. “They sound like bozos, all of em. Sonic is a fuckin’ cool ass hedgehog who can run fast, what’s not to love about that? They’re all out living in dumpsters now. All of them. They go home to their dumpster houses every night and cry.” Griffin then turns to Nick with a playful smile, as if they weren’t talking about mortality a minute ago. “I find your Sonic the Hedgehog obsession incredibly charming.” Nick rolls his eyes at that.

“You’re dumb.”

 

It has been forever. And eventually Nick wakes up to Griffin crying. Nick has done this before. Curled in on himself and let himself go for a moment, crying into the sleeve of his shirt and praying he doesn’t disturb a sleeping Griffin. 

But this unfamiliar noise immediately woke Nick up, eyes flying open and heart immediately seizing at the sound of Griffin letting out tiny, wracked sobs. His eyes immediately begin to well up with tears, overcome with empathy. He knows exactly what Griffin is feeling. He’s been feeling it, always and forever, in this time ring. The dread, the hopelessness. Forever is a fucking long time.

Nick’s chest is aching. He can’t just lie here and listen to this.

Nick rolls over in his seat, and Griffin, facing his window, lets out a shaky gasp before raising a hand to cover his mouth. His body shakes with a few more silent sobs and Nick watches, and swallows. He was preparing himself to say something, but he can’t. He just reaches out and places a hand on Griffin’s back.

Griffin seizes up, gone tense, his body shaking. Nick forces himself to keep his hand there, and after a moment moves it in light, tiny circles. Griffin exhales a shaky breath. Nick rubs his thumb back and forth across Griffin’s spine, waiting for him to tell Nick to stop. But he doesn’t move —  instead his muscles eventually loosen, his breath settling. Nick keeps his hand pressed to him a moment longer before retracting his hand. When he was a kid, his mom would do that to him, to calm him down. He’d told this to Griffin not too long before, describing how just a hand on his back would bring him back down to Earth again, keep him calm. He remembers how Griffin had smiled softly at that.

“Sorry,” Griffin says, his voice still shaky. He sniffs.

Nick wants to hold him, in that moment. Instead, he rolls back over and stares up at the gray space. 

“Don’t be.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter should be out tomorrow! sorry there isn't much to the Plot so far, but these boys have an eternity to spend in this car, so. bear with me. let me know what you thiiink if you wanna!


	3. Chapter 3

Nick has his legs up on the dashboard, his feet pressing patterns of different DDR songs from memory into the air, humming along, much to Griffin’s delight. Nick wishes for the millionth time there was room to stand in this goddamn car. Getting these combos aren’t the same when you’re simply kicking the air to get them.

Nick finishes in a quick flurry of pretend steps, and Griffin claps enthusiastically, cupping his hands around his mouth and announcing “high scoooooore!” 

Nick gives a small bow. “Thank you, thank you.”

“Another!” Griffin demands.

“I don’t think I know another.”

“Fuck. Why doesn’t this waterproof  Ibishu Pessima Lx come with a functional DDR machine? It’s almost like it’s not meant to be the living quarters of two human people.” Griffin rolls his eyes at no one in particular and reaches his arms above himself, stretching his back against his seat. 

Nick does it even when he tells himself not to —he glances down to watch Griffin’s t-shirt rise up for a second around his waist, and feels his cheeks begin to burn.

Yeah, so that’s a thing now.

Nick has tried to make it not a thing, but it’s always been a thing. Nick idolized Griffin from the day they met—both jealous of his wittiness and smitten by his smile. And it’s always been just this small thing, a reminder in the back of Nick’s mind that every time he sees that smile he falls a little more. But come on, after all this time, how could he  _ not _ be in love with Griffin? 

Nick has seen the way he taps complex patterns into his jeans when he’s viciously bored, never content with just doing nothing. He’s seen the way Griffin twitches in his sleep, the way he runs both hands through his hair after every time he sneezes, like somehow his short hair has gone all out of place. How he can so easily snap back into his Funny Griffin persona, always the entertainer, but then minutes later be yawning and saying something mumbled incoherently under his breath when he’s feeling especially out of it.

It’s a thing, clearly. Griffin is Nick’s best friend, his only friend, the only other person who exists—and not just in his eyes. 

Nick takes a deep breath. “I think I’m gonna go sit in the backseat for awhile, maybe play something on my phone.” That’s the thing about the time ring— no wifi, but unlimited battery. No time at all means no time for a phone to process it’s running out of battery, apparently. Which is a perk of eternal damnation. Lately in their journey into forever Nick has taken a liking to reclining in the backseat, keeping his hands and mind busy with the games on his phone. When Griffin wants to sit back there, he types out little fantasy stories into his phone and then, after ages of rewrites and polishing, he’ll read them to Nick aloud. Nick absolutely loves it.

He clumsily shoves himself into the backseat, sighing with relief as he lays down across the seats and takes out his phone. “Gonna beat my Flappy Bird score. Remember when that game was a thing?”

“Jeezums, how could I forget the hours I poured into making that awful bird flap.” Nick giggles at that.

“My highest is 234.” Nick can’t see if he’s actually impressed, but Griffin slowly nods his head approvingly.

It’s moments like these, when they’re domestic and light hearted, that it feels like things have always been this way. And yeah, yeah it has been because of the time ring...but still. Nick is trapped in this car forever, but he is...content.

Even so, there’s this nagging feeling. So he asks.

“Do I annoy you yet?”

Griffin chuckles a little to himself.

“Not one bit.”

Nick softly smiles, his stomach doing little cartwheels in celebration. Nick waits a few moments, and then turns and places his feet on the back of Griffin’s seat before kicking repeatedly.

“You sure? You sure bout that?” Griffin barks a laugh and whips his head around, mock-angry but smiling through his facade. 

“Nick Robinson, you little  _ punk _ . You  _ scoundrel _ , how  _ dare _ you?”

“Fuck the police!” Nick cries, giving Griffin’s seat another shove.

“Why I aughtta-” Griffin mutters in a New York accent, and struggles to climb around his own seat and practically collapses on top of Nick in the backseat. Nick’s heart is pounding as Griffin’s hands are everywhere, trying to grab his wrists while Nick struggles to pretend to push him away.

“All cops are pigs!” Nick yells, but Griffin is practically straddling him now, and clearly has the upper hand. Nick gives up dramatically, Griffin pinning his wrists on either side of his head and laughing in his face, eyes scrunches and mouth wide. Nick feels himself melting into the seat beneath him.

“Are you sick of me?” Griffin asks, his eyes bright as he looks down at Nick below him. Nick feels is stronger than he ever has right then.

“Never.” 

Griffin’s wide smile falters the slightest bit, and Nick realizes just how softly he said that. Griffin is staring down at him, and something changes about his gaze in a way that Nick can’t place. His heart is beating out of control now, because Griffin still hasn’t said anything and that’s not good, not good at all, he’s just ruined it—

“Nick…” Griffin starts, and it sounds like the quiet, raspy Griffin he’s only heard once before. 

Nick is still staring, and something about Griffin’s face changes again. The left side of his face is being illuminated by something in front of them, and Griffin notices it at the same time Nick does, lifting his head and turning his gaze towards the windshield of the car. A light, brighter than the gray space, is now fully illuminating Griffin’s face. “Nick.” He says again, differently this time. “Nick, what is that?”

The light flashes, blinding Nick for a moment, and at the same time the weight of Griffin pinning him down is gone. Nick forces his eyes open and squints as his eyes adjust. And then he can’t breathe.

Griffin is still there, but he’s frozen in place, one half of his face extended through the roof and floor of the car in a long beam, his other eye frozen wide in terror. Nick reaches for him, but both of his hands pass through.

“Griffin!” Nick tries to scream, his voice catching in the back of his throat, as he keeps trying to grab a hold of him. It’s all so bright and now it looks like Griffin is made of pixels, and those pixels are shaking, faster and faster and faster and faster... 

The car hits something, folding into itself, the windshield shattering.

Then, for one final moment, Nick is frozen in place too, along with everything around him. His eyes are locked on Griffin until the very last second—paralyzed, terrified.

 

_ Instability detected. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so the plot begins. more tomorrow!! :)


	4. Chapter 4

In the same moment, Nick is back. He’s alive, gasping for breath as his pixels align themselves again.

And he’s alone.

Not just alone, but he’s not...himself. There’s something on his head, a blue-tinted screen in front of him. For a moment, he thinks he might be out of beamng.drive all together, maybe watching himself on a screen...but, no. All at once, he knows what is happening and who he is.

He is floating through the air, tumbling forward, in a completely gray world that he and Griffin had visited a long, long time ago. He struggles, but manages to lift his hands out in front of himself. He’s wearing those same gloves, the same helmet. He’s wearing Busto 1.0’s helmet. He was right. He is Busto 1.0.

His weightless body spins forward again, and he can see below himself for a moment—he sees a miniature city far down below him. And as he spins upright again, he can see the geometric pattern of the perimeter of this map, the edge still unbearably far.

Nick spins forward, again and again, his mind in absolute shock.

_ How the hell is this possible? _   
That flash of light. Somehow he was transported out of the time ring. Glitched, somehow. And now he is here, hurtling through the sky uncontrollably, while Griffin…

Griffin.

Nick had seen him glitch out completely right in front of him. So, where did he go? Nick is very clearly alone. And if he’s alone, then does that mean Griffin is...gone? Or is he somewhere else?

Is he alone too?

All at once, Nick bursts into tears inside his helmet. Loud, unrestrained tears and wailing that he never would have let out in the car. But it’s been building for so long, all this unreleased dread and sadness in him, and it’s the thought that Griffin might be alone right now that sets off his breakdown. He cries until he can taste his tears, shutting his eyes tight and sobbing loudly, selfishly, into the sky. His only friend, who was so close to him moments ago, just gone. Glitched out of existence. And now Nick really is alone. Flying through nothingness alone.

 

 

 

Nick learns not to think. He lets the air carry him, just spinning and being tossed through the air like a ragdoll, always and forever. 

There is nothing to him. He’s trapped, silent. He might as well be dead.

He has watched his own life over and over in his head— recounting his childhood, his friends, his journey through beamng.drive...and Griffin. It always comes back to Griffin, and ends in Griffin. 

Nick thinks about what could have been, if they were just back in that car. He doesn’t dream of freedom, as he tumbles across the sky. He thinks of what it might have been like to hold Griffin as he fell asleep in the passenger seat, to kiss his forehead when he started to cry. What he could have done to make him smile more. When his mind really starts to stray, he tries to rewind to that last moment, to hold onto the feeling of Griffin holding his wrists, laughing until there were tears in his eyes.

He thinks about everything, and everything that is gone.

So eventually, he learns not to think about anything at all.

 

 

 

But Nick still thinks of him.

And he’s thinking of Griffin when he breaks through the barrier of VR city. He crashes through what feels like a pane of glass, and his eyes snap open, mind scrambling to process that something might actually be happening in the nothingness.

He’s lost momentum suddenly, so much so that he can physically turn and look behind himself and see the single broken pane of glass in the giant geometric border that was holding him in. He begins to float away from the border, and when he looks away from the border all he can see is blackness. Dark, impenetrable blackness in every direction. Great. He’s lost everything, and now he gets to lose light, too. Nick feels a shudder course through him as he’s pulled into the dark. Eventually, he closes his eyes again.

Until he senses a  faint light against his face. He opens his eyes again, and in the distance there’s an...illuminated triangle. It has a ghostly white glow to it, and it’s...coming towards him. Fast. Nick tries to lean himself the other way but there’s no stopping it, the triangle approaches him and—he passes through it. 

And there’s another one after it, encompassing him again. It’s then when Nick realizes it feels like he’s falling, or being pulled by these triangles, one after the other, faster and faster until they blend together, and it’s all so bright again. Nick squints and tries to see what’s beyond all of this. But after the last light passes, he’s pulled to a stop again. He tries to catch his breath, floating stationary in the blackness. And then two massive arms, along with the body of a car crash dummy, begin to appear in the darkness, illuminated in an otherworldly golden glow. And then Busto 2.0’s arms begin to close in, raised in an embrace towards him.

Nick is frozen in fear, the figure impossibly large and...godly.

Just as his massive hands are about to touch directly in front of Nick, Busto’s polygons shake and tangle, like Nick used to make him do when he had any sense of control. His body shakes and wobbles in awful ways, accompanied by a giant, hideous crunching sound, and then the glitch freezes and corrects itself. Except Busto’s impossibly large hands are cupping something between them. Cupping someone, who appears hovering right above Busto’s hands before collapsing onto them, his glasses falling off his face and clattering a foot away from him as he lands in a heap.

Nick hasn’t spoken in so long—his voice is raw as he shouts Griffin’s name.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today's chapter is a bit early, because I ended up cutting this chapter in half because the next chapter is uhhhh quite a doozy. and pretty long. my original draft of six chapters is starting to look more like seven, but we'll see! until then, i hope you liked this baby of a chapter. lemme know what you thiiiiink! :-)


	5. Chapter 5

Nick pushes himself forward, practically swimming through the empty space to where Griffin is lying, illuminated by the light radiating from Busto’s divine form. Nick lands on Busto’s hands and rips the helmet from his body, throwing it out into the blackness below, and kneels down beside him. It’s been so long. It has been forever. Nick is almost afraid to touch him, like he still might not be real.

“Griffin. Griffin... _Griffin_ …” Nick murmers, the sound of his own voice almost foreign to him, but the sound of Griffin’s name so familiar and warm and wonderful. Nick reaches for him, turning him over slowly and carefully, until he can see Griffin’s eyes are closed and his mouth slack. Nick swallows, his hands shaking. He’s missed him so much. Nick reaches for him again, pulling Griffin up from behind into some sort of embrace, holding his head against Nick’s chest and cradling it there. When was the last time he’d felt someone so close to him? He’d imagined this, holding him in the car. Nick bites his lip to stop it from trembling.

Nick pulls back, surveying Griffin’s face. He’s still unconscious. Nick shakes his shoulders lightly. Griffin doesn’t respond, his head falling slack without Nick supporting it. Nick stares at him for a long time, waiting. He looks around himself, picks up Griffin’s glasses and places them gently back on his face, heart pounding. Still, nothing. He waits

Nothing happens, and Nick’s heart is shattering. “Griff?”

Griffin chokes a breath, his eyes flying open and his chest moving in quick breaths over and over as he blinks, gone from Nick’s touch as he sits up by himself. Griffin then turns towards Nick, inches from him now. Griffin breathes heavily as he stares wide eyed at the person in front of him, but Nick thinks he catches the moment of realization. Because then Griffin’s breathing pauses.

“Nick.” He says, barely audible.

“Hey, buddy.” Nick replies, and it’s taking every ounce of self control for him not to ambush Griffin in an embrace right now.

But Griffin does it for him. Nick gets half the wind knocked out of his lungs as Griffin collides with him, knocking him over and immediately burying his face into the crook of Nick’s neck. Now on his back, Nick lies in shock for a second, arguing with himself if this could be real or not, and then deciding he doesn’t care and hugging Griffin back as tightly as he can.

“You’re here.” Griffin whispers into his skin. He raises himself up so that he’s a foot above Nick’s face, and it feels like they were just here moments before. Griffin is beaming, smiling so wide Nick can barely see his eyes, but he does see a tear slip out from one. Nick’s entire body is practically vibrating with exhilaration, his thoughts so clouded with himself just screaming _Griffin_ in his head that it takes him a moment to process what Griffin had even said.

“I am! I am here.” They’re smiling at each other, and Nick might just be content to stay like this forever, but wait. “Where is here?”

Griffin raises his eyebrows and clambers off of Nick, smiling even wider as Nick slowly rises back to his feet.

“Welcome to the end of all of beamng.drive, ‘Busto’s Throne’, as I’ve come to call it.” Griffin gestures to the godly form of Busto 2.0, still looming above them. “Busto 2.0 _lives_ here. And so have I, inside of him, for quite a bit. Nick, I _am_ Busto 2.0.” He pauses, as if Nick should be prepared to answer to that. Nick sort of blinks and shakes his head incredulously. Griffin continues. “And you are Busto 1.0. Or, you were inside of him. Or you’re one and the same? It’s all pretty convoluted. But he brought you here, to me.”

Nick tries to find solace for his confusion in the confident look on Griffin’s face. “Why?”

Griffin lightly chuckles before he answers, spreading his arms wide. “Why _not_ ? Busto 2.0 is an all powerful god. We knew that from the moment we started messing with him. And he’s been watching us, this whole time. And he saw us in our car, saw us reach the end of the time ring. And he took us, absorbed us into the game, and then placed us into the forms of both of the Bustos. To _save us_.”

“How...how do you know all this?”

“I _am him_ , Nick. Remember? I know _so much_ now, Nick! The Bustos know this game inside and out, they know every timeline, every _pixel_ of this world. But they were never able to beat the blob before, it used to consume this world over and over in every time loop, and they just kept trying and trying but...then we came, Nick. And we fucked with things, and we learned and we started to understand. We saw what the blob was capable of and we stopped it, but we trapped ourselves. And when we crashed into the center of the heart of existence, we were supposed to _die_ , Nick. But we’re here. Because of him.” Griffin points back up above them.

Nick feels so small and a little lightheaded, trying to understand while standing in the palm of God’s hand.

“So the blob...got destroyed? The center of the heart of existence destroyed it? Destroyed our car, too?”

Griffin nods excitedly. “But we’re still here! I know that there’s a million time loops where we die or where we were separated earlier, stuck in the center of creation alone forever...but. We’re here now, together. And I know how I can get us back to the Altitude map. We could get back there. And then...we can go _home_.”

“Really?” Nick asks. He hasn’t considered that being an option for a long time.

Griffin nods. “This really does change everything, Nick.” He pauses, and Nick sees the elation, so clear on his face before, begin to fade. Above them, the golden light coming from Busto dims a tiny bit. “I woke up here, and I was alone, and so fucking confused. And there was this information piling into my head out of nowhere, lines and lines of code and knowledge that I had to make sense of. But the one thing I knew as soon as I woke up was...that it was my job to wait for you.” Nick sucks in a breath as he watches Griffin’s expression change—his bottom lip is shaking, and he can’t look Nick in the eye, darting away from him as soon as his voice begins to tremble. Griffin’s eyes eventually settle on the ground. But he’s still smiling through his words. “But I was so lonely, Nick.”

“You keep saying my name after everything.” Nick remarks, breathing a laugh. Griffin looks up at him.

“Because I miss you, dummy!” Griffin steps forward and pushes Nick’s chest lightly, pretending to be angry. “You big old dummy. You motherfucker. You were all I thought about for a small eternity and now you’re making me self conscious about the amount of times I say your name, Ni—” Griffin stops himself, and breaks into laughter.

“I thought about you, too.” Nick replies. “All the time. So much. I missed you so much.” Griffin doesn’t look up at him again, but they still move towards each other in unison, Nick’s arms around Griffin’s neck and Griffin’s around his middle, pulling each other impossibly close and leaning their heads on each other’s shoulders, just breathing for a moment. Nick wants to press a kiss into his neck. “Griffin McElroy, you are a god.”

Griffin shakes his head into Nick’s shoulder, and Nick can feel his cheeks twitch—he’s smiling. “I now share the collective mind of one, yes.” He says. “Busto 1.0 didn’t try talking to you at all?”

“No,” Nick says. “I just...I was just floating through the air above VR city for a long, long time. Just. Completely alone.”

Griffin is quiet for a while. “That sounds fucking awful. But I’m glad he brought you back to me.” Nick feels it rise up in him, his chest so warm and full of fondness that he wishes he could bottle this feeling. He hugs Griffin tighter, trying to pull him closer.

“Then waiting forever was worth it.”

“Fuck, Nick. You’re gonna make me cry more.” Griffin pulls back from him. In the time his eyes were closed, Nick realizes Busto’s light has faded even further.

“Why is that happening?” Nick asks, looking up into the face of the colossal test dummy. Griffin blows air from his nose.

“He’s basically telling us to get to it. He’s gonna help us get out of here.”

“How?”

“Glitch us out of here. Just like before.”

“But...why didn’t he just glitch us both from the car to Altitude in the first place? Why the fuck did I have to be alone all that time?” Nick looks up and stares hard at Busto, who’s still facing straight ahead, gaze locked on the void.

“I think he was worried about god-trashing us, to be honest. Of course he can pass through all of beamng.drive freely, but when it came to saving us, he had to use Busto 1.0 as a vessel to save you. But now that he and I are...buds, I guess, he’s gonna try to glitch me out of here. And at the same time, I’m gonna try to glitch you out of here with me.”

“Then I guess let’s get to it.”

Griffin looks back at him, his mouth now in a straight line, looking at Nick with more than a little panic behind his eyes. “Okay.”

Nick tips his head a little. “Griff, you okay?”

“Nick.” Griffin starts. He speaks unnervingly fast, his hands rubbing his neck and then through his hair as he looks around himself. “I know in my mind how to glitch you out of here, but. I’ve never been able to try it. Busto told me all this time that I could try it on myself, get myself out of here, but. I just. I couldn’t leave you behind, when...when I knew that I had to wait for you.”

Nick loves him so much. He loves him so much and he has to say something…

“Thank you...for waiting.” Nick says, voice cracking on the last syllable.

Griffin takes a step forward, nodding to himself. “I’m gonna try to bring you back to Altitude, but...I’m sorry Nick, but I’m so scared. What if I fuck this up? I should just ask Busto to transport you, and I’ll try to glitch myself.”

“Griffin, I completely trust you.” Nick says, reaching out and gripping Griffin’s forearms. “It’ll be okay.”

“What if it’s in fact _not okay at all_ and I fuck up and never see you again? Fuck, Nick. I can’t do that. I’m changing the plan.”

“Griffin—”

“Nick.” Griffin says stiffly, and Nick can tell he’s trying to hold back tears again. Busto’s light is fading fast. “Just. Get ready. Busto’s gonna glitch you outta here in a sec. You’ll be safe, okay? I’ll find you. I...I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I will, okay?”

“Griffin McElroy, you’re not doing this to me.” Nick watches Griffin clench his jaw, take in a shaky breath.

“I’m in love with you, Nick.”

Nick doesn’t have time to think, even if there was time, as Griffin steps forward, rests his right hand against Nick’s left cheek, and kisses him. Nick’s heart is pounding in his ears and he feels like he’s gone into shock—Griffin is so soft, so _real_ , his stomach is doing absolute fucking backflips. Griffin makes a small noise as he pulls away, and Nick instinctively leans after him, wanting more. Griffin puts a hand on Nick’s chest as he looks down.

“I had a lot of time to think about it.” Griffin whispers. “I had _infinite_ time to think about it. And I wouldn’t mind eternity with you, at all. In fact I would have loved that.”

He takes a step back. Nick takes a step forward, opening his mouth to confess—he doesn’t know what he's about to say but he needs to say _something_.

But the words are frozen in his mouth, because his tongue can’t move. None of him can move. He’s stuck, the steady beat of his heart gone from his ears, his body suddenly weightless. Busto’s light is almost completely out, but Nick can make out Griffin’s eyes glistening as he takes a step back again. No, no no _no...shit_. No, this can’t be it. Nick has to see him again. He has to tell him...

“Bye.” Griffin says, forcing a pained smile and a small wave. The world flashes bright white around Nick, followed by half a second where he feels himself being torn apart in every direction.

 

 

 

_Instability detected._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter tomorrow! i really hope you like it so far..i hope it's not too convoluted in all the "lore" and plot i'm trying to piece together. just, don't think about it too hard i guess? and just think about how how these sweet boys have finally touched mouths.


	6. Chapter 6

Nick wakes up slowly, consciousness creeping up on him. He feels his senses return one by one—first, he can hear waves lapping against a shore. Then, he can feel water rise up to his ankles and slip away again, before he realizes with a start how wet his socks are. His eyes open at the same time he sits up, and Nick has to blink a few times as his eyes adjust to the light, the scenery becoming clear. He is on the edge of a lake, sitting in the sand, the small waves washing up to his feet. The side of him that was lying unconscious in the sand is covered in it, and he brushes a few granules off of his cheeks and arms. But...he feels fine. He looks up over the lake, into the overcast sky. The gloomy weather of the Altitude map reminds him of somewhere else, somewhere far below him, somewhere gray and vast and void.

Then Nick remembers. The blob. The car. Griffin.

Nick rushes to stand, water seeping out of his shoes and making him grimace as he whips his head around in every direction, looking for him. Nick skims the vastness of the lake, the horizon line, but there's nothing but water. He turns around himself, eyes searching the lines of trees, the forested mountains halfway across the map. There’s no sign of Griffin, no footprints in the sand. He’s alone again.

Busto glitched Nick here with no problem, clearly. But where is Griffin?

Griffin said he was going to try to glitch himself. Of course Nick believes in him, he knows that if Griffin was able to do something he’d do it and do it well. But...where is he?

Griffin loves him. Nick finally remembers, and even though he knows their kiss must’ve happened only moments ago, it feels like a half-forgotten dream. Griffin... _in love with him_? Nick’s heart is racing again, and he smiles despite himself, lifting a hand to his forehead in disbelief and laughing.

But he is alone, standing with wet socks in the sand. And Griffin isn’t here. But he _has_ to be here. He has to get here. He has to. Nick just...has to wait for him.

So Nick looks around himself one last time, and then sits back down at the edge of the lake, reaching his arms around his knees and pulling them close. He puts his head down between them, and allows himself to smile again. Griffin loves him. He’s going to get here. Nick can wait for that.

 

 

Nick is beginning to lose patience.

The sun never sets in Altitude, but Nick can tell that it’s been a long time. Time is passing again for him, for the first time in a long time, and he’s starting to feel fatigue creeping up on him. He yawns, his head still between his knees, and wishes he could leave.

This whole world is still digital—he and Griffin used to be able to leave beamng.drive at will, go back to their regular lives and then come back for another session. Of course sometimes if Nick wanted to do some extra, self-indulgent experiments Griffin would take a nap in a car while Nick fiddled with his tablet, shooting six cannons simultaneously at a plane and then waking Griffin up to view the wreckage.

And all those memories feel like eons ago, but Nick is still so fond of them. He and Griffin had laughed until they cried, playfully teased each other as they worked, even sat in awe of the beauty of this game...before everything went to shit. Nick was falling in love then—he can’t believe he never let himself fully realize that until now. All those times that Griffin whined “pleeease Nick, for me?” and his stomach dropped to his feet, all the jokingly flirtatious conversations Nick had just categorized as ‘normal’ for them...it was all more than that to Nick. And Griffin...was Griffin into him that whole time too?

 

Nick cannot force himself to wait any longer. He misses him, so fucking much. He’d spent forever floating across VR city feeling sorry for himself and helplessly missing his best friend. But Nick is here now, and time is passing and he needs to find his tablet. He needs control again.

He had a few of them, back when he came prepared every week to play in this world. At the beginning of all this he coded in a plain black backpack with three tablets that let him manipulate beamng.drive. Nick tries to think back to where they are, where he might be able to find one.

Nick knows he accidentally left one behind in Woolly World, when he and Griffin first saw the power and terror of the blob and they left beamng.drive _real quick_ , Griffin spooked and Nick foolishly forgetting his tablet in a world the blob claimed.

He’d also lost one of the tablets back in their waterproof Ibishu, when the car collided with the first layer of the heart of existence. It sent them into a tailspin and shattered the windows and in that moment, Nick’s grip slipped and the tablet flew out the window, instantly lost in the void. When the car’s glitch had corrected itself the tablet was nowhere to be found, and that’s what left them trapped in the time ring. Nick had said goodbye earlier that day, entered the vortex, and then dropped the fucking tablet that could’ve helped them escape.

How the fuck did Griffin tolerate him after that?

Nick loses himself in a small spiral after remembering the hot shame he felt in that moment, but eventually shakes off the guilt, remembering that Griffin literally confessed his love last time they saw one another.

But where is that third tablet? Nick tries to remember, tracing his steps back until he can remember...that it’s still in his backpack. Which he left in...the emoji car. _For safe keeping_ , he’d said to a worried and tense Griffin, before they headed towards the lake.

The emoji car was their last attempt at fun and distraction before they tried to (and succeeded in?) saving the world. Nick left it parked up on a hill, after watching it jump over and over off of a Buzz Lightyear themed ramp and crash into a clearing below. Nick tries to remember, tries to picture where there car might be, before he stands and immediately starts running. He looks up towards the mountains, tries to pinpoint where that ramp was. The car has to be somewhere over there. Nick sets his gaze and runs faster. _To infinity and beyond_ , huh? Seems like some sort of weird foreshadowing, now. They had no idea how far beyond they were about to go.

 

Nick is fucking _tired_ , after climbing blindly up grassy hills and jogging past stationary jpgs of cows. He feels like he’s in a dream—eyes half lidded, legs like lead, every tree and path seeming to blur together. And just when he thinks the only colors he’s ever seen are green and gray, he sees a hint of yellow between the trees. Nick gasps, and his feet (dry from the lake water, by now) hit the ground running, sprinting towards it. He’s panting and gasping for breath as he reaches a clearing in the woods, and there it is, Emoji Car, looking a little rough for wear. He never thought he’d be so happy to see this abomination of vehicle design.

Nick whips open the driver’s side door, and there’s his backpack, leaning against the steering wheel. He tears into it and pulls out his last tablet, the feeling of it in his hands so familiar and instantly relieving.

He flicks his pointer finger across the screen and pulls up the beamng.drive menu, and then his mind pauses. In the lower right corner of the screen there is a button that’s labeled QUIT SIMULATION. He’s pressed that button so many times. He’s pressed it and been back to his real life in that same instant, back home. Nick misses home, he does. But he misses Griffin so much more.

And he knows who he can conjure to maybe get Griffin back.

He goes to add a vehicle, and then scrolls further, landing on the crash test dummy. Nick selects it, flicks his finger upwards, and he appears, standing among the trees in front of him.

Busto 2.0 is much, much smaller than he remembers. And this time he’s stationary, unalive. Nick approaches him, something he never would have done before when he and Griffin first tested with him.

“You need to bring him back.” Nick starts, voice already shaking. “Even if he tried to do it himself, even if you taught him and he messed up or something, I need you to find him and bring him back here. Now.” Nick stares the dummy right in the face. “You’re in there, I know you are. And you must be powerful enough to go back and get him. Maybe he can do it himself, but he’s still not here. And I love him, you _know_ that I love him. So can you please? Just, help me? Please.” Nick stares into the dummy’s blank face, and Busto doesn’t respond. Of course he doesn’t.

Nick turns and walks away, trying to push back tears. “What the fuck do I do then?” He yells, kicking the side of Emoji Car and leaving a small dent. “Fuck!” His foot stings, and he clenches his jaw as the pain passes. Hopelessness creeps up on him, settling into him until he feels like he could collapse. Nick breathes, staring down at the ground for a long time. No, no no no. Fuck no.

Nick turns back around, stomps back to the dummy and points a finger in his face. “I’m not leaving him in here. I’m not going home without him. And even if I have to fucking wait for—”

“Nick?”

Nick turns, and there he is. Standing ten feet behind the emoji car, arms at his side, just...there. 

“Griffin.”

“Are you _yelling_ at Busto about me?” Griffin asks, a smile blooming across his face. With that, Nick starts walking towards him, the corners of his mouth inching up until he’s beaming right back.

“I was, yeah.” Nick answers, walking faster.

Griffin snorts, lets out a sarcastic “wow, bud.”

Nick jogs the rest of the way to him. “Fuck you, you fucking...dumb dummy.” Nick drops the tablet to the ground, grabs Griffin by the sides of his face and kisses him hard, Griffin making a small noise. Nick is melting as Griffin’s hands settle on his hips, pulling him closer. He’s so aware of every inch where Griffin is touching him and he’s breathless at the fact that he’s so _close_ , that he’s _here._ He licks Griffin’s bottom lip carefully and as their tongues languidly touch, so soft and so easy, Nick is so fucking happy he makes a noise that sounds like a whine.

Griffin pulls back. “My god.” He says, smiling against Nick’s mouth. When Nick opens his eyes, Griffin is still right there, lips red and glistening. After a second, his eyes widen. “I didn’t even say hello to you yet.” Griffin playfully leans back into him, smiling. “Hello, Nick.” Nick’s eyes flicker down from Griffin’s eyes to his lips and he kisses him again, hard and fast and eager. When he finally forces himself to let go, Griffin blinks a few times, incredulous.

Nick looks away, then pretends to only just notice the man he’s holding in his arms. “Oh hey, Griffin.”

Griffin rolls his eyes, biting his lip to hide his smile. “So...I'm taking it that it was okay that I kissed you back there at Busto’s Place?” He scrunches up his face, tipping his head to the side. Nick delights in this moment, where he gets to look into Griffin’s eyes and just fucking _tell him already_.

“Griffin McElroy, I am _unbearably_ in love with you. You’re all I think about. And you have been, for a long time. A really long time. Since forever.” As Nick is speaking, he gets to watch Griffin’s smile actually fall a little as his eyes light up, staring at him almost in wonder. “So yeah, it’s okay.” Nick says. And even though they’re already pressed against each other, the hand on Nick’s hip pulls him closer.

“Whaaaaat?” Griffin asks, his voice an octave higher than usual. “Really?”

“Oh hell yeah.” Nick says, and they’re back to joking with each other, even at a time like this. Griffin shakes his head a little, eyes full of a look that Nick’s never seen, and connects their lips again.

“So I made you wait long?” Griffin suddenly asks, breaking the kiss. “How long has it been?”

Nick opens his eyes to see Griffin’s worried expression, and sighs. “I don’t know. I woke up on the beach down there, and I went to search for the tablet, and then I...got tired of waiting and decided I was gonna yell at Busto until he did something about it. Did he? Did he bring you back?”

Griffin knits his eyebrows. “I don’t think so. I’ve been awake for a while, too. I woke up up there, nearly at the top of the mountain. And I was just wandering around, looking for you, when I heard someone yell profanities at the top of their lungs and—” Griffin is smiling again. “I thought, _that’s my boy_!”

Nick grabs him, hugs him tight. “You did it then, Griff! You’re an all-powerful god! Shit, wow. You can glitch yourself around the world, that's fuckin' sick.” Nick leans forward and kisses his cheek as Griffin rolls his eyes.

“It took a fucking _lot_ outta me, Nick. And I obviously didn’t do a very good job, since I sent myself halfway across the map from you. Buuuut...what’re you gonna do? Pobody’s nerfect.” Nick watches as Griffin makes a face, and he grins as he shakes his head, unconvinced that this boy is real.

“God, I can’t believe you’re here right now.”

Griffin's eyes flicker away. “And I can’t believe Busto’s been watching us kiss this whole time.” Griffin says, and leans to look over Nick’s shoulder behind them. Nick grimaces, closing his eyes for a moment. Griffin continues. “And I know he has, because of the whole connected mind buddies thing. Hey Busto, could ya maaaybe like...not? Thanks!” Griffin shouts in his direction, before he looks back at Nick and they break into laughter at the same time.

 

 

“How long have we been here?” Nick asks. He and Griffin have their backs against the emoji car, Griffin’s head on Nick’s shoulder, their hands intertwined between them.

They had made out a fucking lot—first standing in the clearing and then with Griffin’s back pressed up against the emoji car, kissing hard and sloppy until Griffin jokingly complained his lips were sore and there were two very obvious hickeys on the right side of Nick’s neck.

But even now when they've settled down they can’t _not_ be touching each other as they sit together in the grass. Nick’s thumb is rubbing back and forth across Griffin’s hand as they sit in silence,  just looking out at the timeless world around them.

“Like, in real life time? And not the eternity we just spent here? A few hours.” Griffin answers.

“A few hours…” Nick repeats. “It feels good to say that, doesn’t it? Seconds, minutes—”

“Days, hours.” finishes Griffin. He pauses. “Is it bad that after all the fuckin' shit this place put us through, I don’t really wanna leave? And fuckin’ wake up in my office across the country from you?”

Nick’s thumb stops moving, his heart sinking to his stomach.

“I don’t want to leave either.” Griffin’s head is gone from his shoulder, and Nick turns to look at him. “At least not for a little while. A few more hours?”

“Hours.” Griffin repeats, his smile appearing again as he revels in the word.

Nick looks back ahead of them, at the horizon and the lake through the trees. “Do you wanna go for a drive? You can pick the map. Let’s just...drive a car around. It’s been awhile since we did that.”

When Nick looks back to him, Griffin’s eyes are glistening with tears, and it scares Nick for a moment, as he begins to rub his thumb against Griffin's hand again, aiming his body towards him.

“Hey, hey. You okay, Griff?” He asks.

Griffin blinks quickly a few times and nods. “Let’s go drive.” Griffin says. Nick lets him go and rises to his feet, reaching a hand out for Griffin to grab. “What a goddamn gentleman.” Griffin muses as he takes Nick’s hand, and just as Nick pulls him up he leans forward and presses a soft kiss to the corner of Griffin's mouth.

And then Griffin's eyes flit up to meet his, slowly smiling and lifting a hand to push his glasses up his nose.

Needless to say, Nick wants to pause that exact moment and live in it forever.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay okay, i lied. this ended up being 7 parts. aaand that last part will be up either late tonight or sometime tomorrow! :)


	7. Chapter 7

On that drive, they sing _Candle in the Wind_ . The actual tape is lost to time and the heart of all creation, but Nick still has Griffin’s _really super bad_ impression that he can rely on to give him an even better version of Elton John’s hit song.

But first, Nick slams his foot down on the gas pedal of a chromed-out baby blue pickup. They go absolutely flying, tires leaving skid marks before they’re off, Nick not pulling off the pedal until Griffin begs him to with a drawn out whine of _Niiiiiiiiicolaass_. Nick is whooping and hollering while Griffin begins laughing deliriously, holding on for dear life. Nick whips them around Gridmap, laughing along with Griffin in the sheer madness of it all. 

He's eventually singing along with Griffin, and god dammit he still knows every millisecond of that song by heart. And then when Griffin actually nails a high note in his real voice Nick slams on the breaks, in shock. He whips his head towards the man next to him, who is staring back at Nick is disbelief before he asks "what?". Nick unbuckles himself and climbs onto Griffin’s lap in the passenger seat, murmuring something about how great he is before they make out for a long, long time.

But that’s one thing they don’t have any more—unlimited time. So eventually they leave their truck behind, climbing out and waiting a moment before embracing again, Griffin nuzzling his face just where it fits perfectly in Nick’s neck. Nick sighs, bitterly disappointed he has to let go but trying to remember this as clearly as he can—just the feeling of Griffin holding him.

But still, this is just a moment. There’s no more unlimited time.

“I gotta go home.” Griffin murmurs.

Nick nods. “Yeah, I should get home too.”

“But I don’t waaaanna…” Griffin whines into his skin, before lazily kissing his neck and making Nick shiver.

“I don’t want to either.” Nick says, and has to shimmy his shoulder just so Griffin will stop and he can focus again. Griffin groans quietly at that, and Nick joins in mockingly.

“Okay, okay.” Griffin says, and pulls back, letting go. Nick immediately grabs his hand again. Griffin looks down at their intertwined fingers, then back up again. “I’ll call you. As soon as I get back.”

“You don’t have to do that, Griff—”

“I’m gonna, though!” Griffin insists. “I’m gonna call you and remind myself that all this was real, tell you I love you, and then I’m gonna take a big fucking nap. And then I’m gonna wake up and I'm gonna book a flight to San Fran.” Griffin has his head high, and nods once, like he’s just decided.

Nick smiles, mirroring Griffin’s nod. “I look forward to your call.” He squeezes Griffin’s hand before he finally makes himself let go. “I look forward to forever.”

Griffin scrunches his nose, shakes his head.

“Disgustingly cheesy.”

 

 

Minutes later, Nick’s mind wakes up. He takes off his headset first, tugging the neural wire from his temple and placing the helmet-like contraption on his desk in front of him. He blinks, eyes glancing about his room. It feels unreal—too crisp, the graphics too well-crafted. Nick stretches his back against his chair, feeling stiff, spinning around once for good measure. Then he looks back at his computer, pushes a few buttons, and pulls up the runtime on beamng.drive, wondering just how long he’s played today.

Six hours. That’s it. An eternity...what felt like years and years to him, is all gone, and instead replaced with six very real hours.

His phone begins to ring in his pocket. Nick fumbles around to get it, heart kicking into gear. Nick pulls it out, and Griffin’s contact photo appears on the screen. It’s a picture of him with pocky poking out either side of his mouth like a walrus, a photo Nick had taken the first time they hung out together. Nick clicks accept and raises his phone to his ear, already smiling. Even if he’s expecting it, hearing Griffin’s voice makes his heart absolutely melt.

“Nick Robinsoooon, are you still real and do you still love me?” Griffin’s voice rises at the end of the question impossibly high, and Nick is laughing, spinning himself in his chair from side to side, absolutely giddy. He is alone in his room, but Griffin is right there with him. It feels familiar. 

“Yes, I’m a real flesh person just like you. And I love you more than anything in my life, Griffin.”

The other end is dead silent. Nick moves the phone away from his face, checks to see if he's still on the call. "Griff? Did I lose ya?"

" _Nope,_ " Griffin practically squeaks. "No you did not."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand that's it! thanks so much for reading my dumb little polygon boys kissing story (that got out of hand, but the way. this was supposed to be like, 3k tops). if you liked it let me know!! seriously the comments i've gotten have been so nice and it means the absolute wooooorld to me that people like the way i write the boys (consuming mcelroy products pays off) or they like my writing style (like, what does that mEAN idk but i appreciate it) anyway writing this was a blast.. so once again thank you for reading!! :)


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